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A rowdy fraternity had totally trashed the 1897 brick row house. Then a pair of professors bought it and set about restoring its architectural integrity

Library Graffitti

Looking back, I realize we were crazy to do what we did. We were just starting to figure out our relationship, and to throw in the stress of renovating a house made getting along a struggle. My idea was just to get the dang house up to code as soon as possible and then go back later to redo it the way we wanted, but Jill wanted to do it right from the beginning. I would find her breaking into a fireplace or tearing off a floorboard, and I'd get so upset because I didn't think we had time to do those projects. I just wanted to get the walls and ceilings stabilized enough to pass code so that my home mortgage, which is tied to the rehab agreement, would drop to a lower, more reasonable rate. Of course, Jill had the foresight to know it would cost us more to do things over again later. We had a lot of arguments that year, but with time and patience, we learned how to work as a team.